Susan Brandenburg: Community supports Nicki Leach Foundation

Ponte Vedra Beach

Urban Flats in Ponte Vedra Beach was jammed with people March 8, for the third annual Nicki Leach Foundation Fundraiser.

Nicki Leach, who died at age 19 of brain cancer on April 29, 2005, is still remembered fondly in this community. Nicki’s mother, Bunny Leach, started the foundation to help other young people like her late daughter. Nicki’s brother, Guitarist Jesse Leach (of the local band, Juicy Pony) provided musical entertainment for the event which raised more than $2,000 for the foundation.

Olivia Argiro and her family made a special trip from their home in Miami to attend the fundraiser.

Olivia, 19, is one of several young people, ages 17-25, receiving a grant from the Nicki Leach Foundation, which provides financial assistance to young adults with cancer. She is receiving treatment for a rare spinal cancer called ependymoma. Olivia has many of the positive views that Nicki had about living life with a smile and giving back to others.

“When I start feeling a little better I want to volunteer at Miami Children’s Hospital where I got my surgery; I want to give back to them what they have given and still give me. I know that there are a lot of kids that are sick like me, and I know that just a smile makes their day,” she said.

Bunny Leach hopes her new book, “Turtle Shells, Heading Through Cancer,” chronicling her journey as a mother who loses her daughter to cancer, will inspire readers to help the Nicki Leach Foundation.

“This age group is the highest uninsured or under insured in the nation,” said Bunny Leach. “They’re trying to go to college. Then they get cancer. They need help. That’s what we’re trying to do, and what Nicki wanted me to do – help this in-between age group to deal with the challenges of cancer.” Go to www.nickileach.org to learn more.

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The new EPOCH Project slated for April 2013 may just be the notable event that brings more people to Jacksonville than did Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. An open art and technology contest designed to attract thousands of people to Jacksonville, EPOCH was inspired by ArtPrize, a similar contest held for the past four years in Grand Rapids, Mich., that annually draws more than 300,000 visitors. EPOCH will have prizes totaling $500,000, with more than 150 venues in downtown Jacksonville hosting participants.

The annual competition will be open to individuals, a group of collaborating creators or corporations that present an idea, invention, creation or any manifestation of human imagination including but not limited to engineering, architecture, art, electronics, robotics, conservation, communication or science.

Any registered creator can participate if they can secure a registered venue. Organizers of EPOCH are Wayne Wood, Doug Coleman, Dolf James, Joanelle Mulrain and others in the creative community.

Among those present at the announcement of the 11-day event was child advocate and community volunteer Pam Paul of Ponte Vedra Beach, a three-time EVE Award winner.

“It’s a great project,” said Paul. “It should be a wonderful economic boon for our region. I can’t even imagine how many people it will introduce to Jacksonville!”

Paul said she has signed up to be a volunteer and feels that it is such a promising project that “we can all do something.”

To learn more details for entrants, venues, visitors, sponsors and volunteers, go to www.facebook.com/epochproject, or call Wayne Wood at 384-5529.

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It’s not easy to surprise Ambassador and UNF Professor Nancy Soderberg, appointed in January by President Obama as the chairperson for the Public Interest Declassification board.

However, Hank Bonar of Ortega managed to pull off two surprise birthday parties for her, the second one being March 12 (the day before her birthday), when dozens of well-wishers greeted Soderberg at Bonar’s Ortega home. Well-wishers included Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown and his family.

Ponte Vedra Beach was also well-represented at the Ambassador’s birthday bash by several members of her book club and their spouses, including Ponte Vedra residents Ann Tarleton, Fran O’Brien and her husband, Dave, Philla and Ron Hinder and Ginny and Charles Dunn.

“We love Nancy. She’s a dynamo, and it’s so much fun being in the book club with her,” said Ginny Dunn.

Soderberg is an author as well as a book club member, having written two books: “The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might” (2005), and “The Prosperity Agenda, What the World Wants from America and What we Need in Return” (2008, written with Brian Katulis).